Festivals

The Hai Luu buffalo fighting festival has been held for 2 days (16th and 17th of the first lunar month) at Hai Luu village, Song Lo district, Vinh Phuc province. Despite of hot weather and high fare (30,000 VND), the festival this year attracted mostly 6,000 spectators.

According to historical document, this festival commenced in the 2nd century BC and it has been restored since 2002 after along time without holding in the past. It still contains many ancient tradition and includes 2 main part:ceremony and festival.

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The seal opening ceremony at the Tran temple in the northern province of Nam Dinh took place on the night of February 27, attracting the participant of nearly 50,000 visitors.

National Assembly Vice Chairman Huynh Ngoc Son and Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan attended the event and directly opened the seal.The event opened with a seal parade, and then the seal was distributed to nine pagodas, temples and visitors. (more…)

In the opinion of Muong ethnic people in Thanh Hoa Province, the first lunar month is the festival month. Many old people in Ma village have gathered at the communal temple, playing flute and drumimg gong to call for people joining the festival since early morning.

Drumming gong to open festival (more…)

Emperor Hung-Vuong had many sons. Some pursued literary careers. Others excelled in martial arts. The youngest prince named Tiet – Lieu, however, loved neither. Instead, he and his wife and their children chose the countryside where they farmed the land.

One day, toward the end of the year, the emperor met with all his sons. He told them whoever brought him the most special and unusual food would be made the new emperor. Almost immediately, the princes left for their homes and started looking for the most delicious food to offerthe emperor . Some went hunting in the forests and brought home birds and animals which they prepared into the most palatable dishes. Some others sailed out to the open sea, trying to catch fish, lobsters and other much loved sea food. Neither the rough sea nor the violent weather could stop them from looking for the best gifts to pleasethe emperor.

In his search, Tiet-Lieu went back to the countryside. He saw that the rice in his paddy fields was ripe and ready to be harvested, Walking by a glutinous rice field, he picked some golden grains on a long stalk. He brought them close to his nose and he could smell a delicate aroma.

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“Quan Ho” is a special folk song of Kinh Bac Province, now called Bac Ninh Province. The festival takes place on Lim Hill where the Lim Pagoda is located. This pagoda is where Mr. Hieu Trung Hau, the man who invented Quan Ho, is worshiped. The Lim Festival takes place every year on 13th day of the first lunar month. Visitors come to enjoythe festival and see the performances of “lien anh” and “lien chi”. These are male and female farmers who sing different types of songs in the pagodas, on the hills, and in the boats. Besides this, visitors can come to the Lim Festival to enjoy the weaving competition of the Noi Due girls.

They weave and sing Quan Ho songs at the same time. Like other religious festivals, the Lim Festival goes through all the ritual stages, from the procession to the worshiping ceremony, and includes other activities. The Lim Festival is a special cultural activity in the North.The festival celebrates the “Quan Ho” folk song which has become a part of the national culture and a typical folk song that is well loved in the Red River Delta region.

You may have seen them before. They adorn the walls of Vietnamese restaurants everywhere in the world and Vietnamese overseas hang them up as Lunar New Year approaches. In Vietnam, production of these folk paintings peaks right before Tet as merchants stock up in anticipation of heavy customer demand. These paintings are traditionally used to decorate homes for the New Year festival.

Producing Dong Ho paintings is a trade of time-honoured tradition of the village of Dong Ho. It is Dong Ho paintings that make Dong Ho village famous across Vietnam as well as in the world. In fact, only Dong Ho village’s people can turn out real Dong Ho paintings.

The village of Dong Ho is in Ha Bac, the province just north of Hanoi. Come there, besides impressive paintings, you can enjoy beautiful rural scenery and fresh air of the Vietnam’s coutryside. However, whenever people mention to Dong Ho village, first of all they remember Dong Ho paintings.

The production of Dong Ho paintings is rather sophisticated. It can be described as follows

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Many villages in the suburbs of Hanoi specialize in growing peach trees. When New Year is coming, each household in the capital city makes a point of procuring at least a small branch of peach flowers to decorate their house. Petals are single or double according to the variety, and their colors range from a delicate pink to carmine red. Connoisseurs like double petals and tender rosy tones, but popular preference goes to more vivid tints.

Peach blossoms owe their popularity to reasons that very according to individual age and taste. Most people like them because of the beauty of their slender petal, but some see a symbol of prosperity and good fortune in the vividness of their colors. The older generation believes in the power of peach blossoms to repel evil.

The festival which best epitomizes Vietnam’s cultural identity is Vietnamese New Year or Tet. Popular festivals play a major role as mirror and guardian of a nation’s cultural identity. In this aspect, the festival which best epitomizes Vietnam’s cultural identity is Tet.

Although endowed with honorable credentials, the New Year by Solar Calendar has not succeeded in becoming accredited in Vietnam, at least not in the countryside. People pay it polite homage countryside but reserve their heart and soul for their own traditional Vietnamese New Year.

“Tet” is a word of Chinese Origin. It is the phonetic deformation of “Tiet”, a Sino Vietnamese term which means “Joint of a bamboo stern” and in a wider sense, the “beginning of a period of the year”. The passage from one period to the next may cause a meteorological disturbance (heat, rain, mist) that must be exercised by ritual sacrifices and festivities. Thus, there are many Tets throughout the year (Mid-autumn VietnameseNew Year, Cold Food Vietnamese New Year, etc.). The most significant of all is “Vietnamese New Year Ca” (“Big Vietnamese New Year” or simply “Vietnamese New Year”), which marks the Lunar New Year.

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1. Clean and decorate the home
Homes are often cleaned and decorated before New Year’s Eve. Children are in charge of sweeping and scrubbing the floor. The kitchen needs to be cleaned before the 23rd night of the last month. Usually, the head of the household cleans the dust and ashes (from incense) from the ancestral altars. It is a common belief that cleaning the house will get rid of the bad fortunes associated with the old year. Some people would paint their house and decorate with festive items.

2. Literally means “getting new clothes”
This is often the most exciting part of the Vietnamese New Year among children. Parents usually purchase new clothes and shoes for their children a month prior to the New Year. However, children cannot wear their new clothes until the first day of the New Year and onward. The best outfit is always worn on the first day of the year.

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